Farewell and Goodbye (In Memoriam)
by cartoonman412
Summary: Ronnie Anne gets a telephone call from Hector who tells her that Rosa doesn't have much time left to live and might be on the verge of dying. She becomes depressed and nervous and tells everybody about it as well.


1 Monday morning in the early Autumn, Ronnie Anne was about to head out the door to wait for the school bus, when the telephone rang. Seeing that she was closest to the wireless telephone, she answered it.

"Hello?" Ronnie Anne spoke right into the telephone upon answering it.

"Why hello there, Ronalda, it's Is your Abuelo, is your Tio Carlos there?" Hector replied to her.

"No, Abuelo, Tio Carlos went out to open the Great Lakes City Bowling Alley, and I'm about to leave for school, can I take a message, please?" Ronnie Anne asked him while grabbing a pen by the phone and pulling the pad of sticky notes near her so she could write the message down.

"Just tell him that your abuela doesn't have much time left to live." Hector said to her.

Ronnie Anne's heart sank in her chest, just as she stood there, not able to speak, her mouth was wide open and while she was only in 6th grade, she wasn't too peculiar with death and dying and she knew that Rosa's time might come, but she wasn't expecting it real soon.

"Ronalda? are you still there?" Hector asked her right after it had gone silent for a couple of minutes on account of Ronnie Anne's surprised reaction.

"Uh… Yeah… Abuelo…. I'm… Right… Here…" Ronnie Anne stammered a bit while trying to hold back the tear drops.

"Did you get the message? about Abuela?" Hector asked her again.

"Yes, Abuelo, I'll make sure to give Tio Carlos the message." Ronnie Anne replied to him just as Bobby and Maria (with Rico in the baby carrier) and Maria walked right into the kitchen and she was carrying Ronnie Anne's lunch bag.

"Well I gotta go to school, bye, Abuelo." Ronnie Anne said to him while hanging up the wireless telephone and looking right up at Maria who stood right before her.

"Ronalda, who was that on the telephone with you?" Maria asked her.

"That was Abuelo, Mom, Abuela's not doing too well and she may be on the verge of… of…I just can't say it." Ronnie Anne stammered a bit while nearly prepared to break down again.

Maria put Ronnie Anne's lunch bag down and put her right hand on Ronnie Anne's right shoulder.

"I understand that your grandmother's real special to you, Roberto and Rico, I'll tell you what, I'll speak to your uncle, and right after school, we'll see to going and paying her a visit, but of course, both of our cars are in the shop, right after your uncle getting that flat tire yesterday, and mine having to go in for an oil change, so we'll need to take a taxi cab, but we'll see what we can do, now you need to be running along to school, the school bus will be here shortly." Maria said to her while handing Ronnie Anne her lunch bag and walking right with her to the front door.

"Alright, Mom, thanks a bunch." Ronnie Anne said to her while giving Maria a wrap around her right shoulder right before walking right towards the bus stop.

The bulk of that entire day at school was uneventful for Ronnie Anne just as she found herself in a fog too worried about Rosa to concentrate on anything at all. Then came lunch time and she sat right down at her usual table with Lincoln, Clyde, Sid, Zach and Ian. Ronnie Anne opened up her lunch bag, tore open the sandwich bag with her ham and cheese sandwich inside when she felt somebody tapping on her right shoulder. She turned right over to see that Lincoln had sat right down with his warm lunch he got from the school cafeteria kitchen

"Are you alright, Ronnie Anne? you seem a bit distracted today." Lincoln asked her due to a look of concern on his face.

"No, Lincoln, it's my abuela, she's in the hospital." Ronnie Anne said to him while leaning right into Lincoln's right ear to whisper something to him.

"I think she might be…" Ronnie Anne whispered to Lincoln, but she couldn't bring herself to say the final word.

"Don't worry about it, Ronnie Anne, she's in the hospital, right? I'm pretty sure she'll be just fine." Lincoln whispered back to her while hoping to cheer his best friend for life and 1 true love up a bit.

While ordinarily, she would take her best friend for life and 1 true love's word of advice, she knew deep down that Rosa didn't have too much time to live, but thinking about it only made her more upset. It was all she could do most of that day to keep the tear drops from coming to her eyes, not wishing to cry and weep in front of the other young kids in school. She's been nervous about crying and weeping in school ever since she was in kindergarten when she fell over on the playground and cried and wept 'cause she hurt her knee cap and while the kindergarten teacher came right over and helped her in to the school nurse's office, he couldn't help but notice Chandler, in particular, laughing at her and calling her a cry baby. Embarrassed by this, she swore to never break down in tear drops in school again, and now, here she was, 3 years later, on the verge of wanting to cry and weep, but not wishing to face the embarrassment again on top of losing 1 of the few grandparent figures that's always been there for her just as long as she could remember. She went back to eating her lunch meal while trying to put Rosa outta her mind, not saying much to either Lincoln, Clyde, Sid, Zach and Ian who were speaking about the latest _Justice Pals_ movie they had all gone to see yesterday Sunday afternoon together as always at the movie theater and while Ronnie Anne did enjoy the movie, she wasn't much in the mood to speak so only put her own input in if she was spoken to.

"Wasn't it super thrilling how the Justice Pals destroyed those evil giant yellow jackets, Ronnie Anne?" Sid asked her.

"Oh yeah, it was super thrilling." Ronnie Anne replied to them in between sips of her mixed berry apple juice that she brought from home this morning.

The school bell rang and everybody went right outside where Ronnie Anne sat on 1 of the benches right up by the school building and watched her good friends play hop scotch and just as it was all she could do to concentrate during the morning time, she found the exact same trouble arose that afternoon. She was just grateful to come right at the end of the entire day that she was never called on to answer a question. Chances were that she was so out of it, she would've got her answers wrong, something that hardly even happened, unless of course she was really nervous about an upcoming test or lost in thought over a major event like it was today with Rosa being on the verge of dying.

Right before she knew it, the school bell rang again and she got right on the school bus where she took a seat right by the window and looked right out the window all the way home and not speaking with anybody at all. No sooner had she arrived home when a big yellow taxi cab was sitting right in their driveway. She was curious enough to see what was going on around here.

"Come on, Roberto and Ronalda, let's go." Maria called to them from inside the taxi cab.

"Okay, Mom, we're coming with you." Bobby called back to her while approaching the back door of the taxi cab and opening it.

"Where are we going?" Ronnie Anne asked her while climbing right into the cab with Bobby and closing the door right behind her.

"We're picking up your Uncle Carlos from the bakery shop and heading right up to the hospital where your grandmother's being stationed, I received another telephone call from your grandfather today and she doesn't have much time left to live, it'll be good if she's still alive when we get there, neither 1 of our cars were ready to be picked up at the mechanic's so your Uncle Carlos and I agreed to take a taxi cab up there so you 2 could see your grandmother and tell her goodbye." Maria explained to them as the taxi cab driver pulled right outta their driveway and headed right in the direction of the bowling alley.

Luckily when they arrived, Carlos was waiting right out front at which point, Maria moved to the back seat and let Carlos ride in front ever since he suffered from motion sickness if he rode in the back seat.

"Thanks for watching over things while I'm gone out, you guys." Carlos called to them from the taxi cab while waving to 1 of his co-workers who was in the doorway.

"No problem, Carlos, good luck with everything." Co-Worker Number 1 called to him as Carlos closed his door, buckled his seatbelt and very soon, they were on their way to the Hospital.

It was a super long drive just as Rosa lived an hour away and Rosa was stationed at the hospital in their home town, but the drive felt especially long enough to Ronnie Anne at this time. To pass the time, she decided to work on a little bit of homework she had that evening which was going over her spelling words for the entire week and finishing up some math problems on a worksheet that she began in Agnes Johnson's class, but she didn't have enough time to finish and Agnes Johnson told her to finish the problems at home, but just as she had trouble concentrating in school, not to mention the bumpiness of the taxi cab made it difficult to write, it was nearly impossible to do her math homework so she handed the sheet of spelling words to Maria and had her call out K words to her.

"Ronalda, spell the word, kitten." Maria read aloud.

"Uh… K-I-T-T-E-N." Ronnie Anne replied to herself a bit unsure if she was getting it right or not.

"That's right, now spell the word, kickball." Maria read aloud.

"Uh… Um…K-I-C-K-B-A-L-L?" Ronnie Anne asked her once again unsure.

"Good save there, Ronalda." Maria said to her.

They continued on right through the rest of the spelling words which were all words that began with the letter K for that week and while Ronnie Anne got them correct, she wasn't having any difficulty. However, they arrived at the hospital.

"We're here." The taxi cab driver said to them.

"Thanks a bunch, kind sir." Carlos said to him while paying him the cab fare and the 4 family members piled right outta the taxi cab right on to the curb near the hospital entrance.

Ronnie Anne gulped nervously upon getting outta the taxi cab 'cause being near hospitals made her a bit nervous.

"What seems to be the matter here, Ronnie Anne?" Bobby asked her while noticing his younger sister looking nervous.

"It's just that I don't like hospitals that much, Bobby." Ronnie Anne replied to him while leaning in close to Maria and Carlos for support.

"Don't worry about it, Ronnie Anne, we'll be right with you, and I'm sure a nice warm cuddle and smiling face from Abuela will cheer you up a lot, it always does." Bobby said to her.

But Bobby wasn't only a similar spirited person to Lori in times like this, always looking on the good side of things, even at age 16, he didn't have quite the exact same concept of death that Ronnie Anne had while seeing her Aunt Frida still alive and just as far as she knew, Bobby had never lost anybody important to him before, but however, she didn't wanna possibly begin an argument with her older brother so she remained silent just as the entire family walked right into the hospital and went right up to the receptionist's desk to find out where Rosa's hospital room was.

"We're here to pay my mother a visit." Maria said to the receptionist who was sitting right behind the desk.

The receptionist typed some things on the computer screen then she turned her attention back to Maria.

"She's upstairs in room 312, take the elevator to the 7th floor, it'll be the 5th room on your right down the hallway." The receptionist said to them while pointing in the direction of the elevators.

"Thanks a bunch, ma'am." Maria said to her.

The 4 family members got on the next elevator and went right up to Rosa's hospital room and when they got there, they saw Hector hunched right over the hospital bed where Rosa was lying, in tear drops. They were terribly upset that they didn't even hear the entire family come in here.

"Mom? Dad? we're here." Carlos said to them while coming right up behind his father who turned around startled by his presence.

"Maria, Carlos, this isn't easy for me to tell you, but your mother's gone for good." Hector whispered to him while putting his face on Carlos's right shoulder.

Sure enough, Bobby, Ronnie Anne, Maria and Carlos all looked right at the hospital bed where Rosa was lying, and sure enough, she had passed away peacefully, and at this point, Ronnie Anne who was a bit freaked out by seeing their deceased grandmother right before her, ran right outta the hospital room screaming and crying at the exact same time.

"Ronalda, come back, wait!" Maria called out to her while stumbling right outta the hospital room and running right down the hallway to catch up with her 11 year old daughter who had run face 1st into a cart that had ice cold water on it to be delivered to other patients in the building.

Unfortunately, Maria wasn't fast enough and Ronnie Anne went face 1st into the cart which ran right down the hallway 'til it hit the wall at the end, toppling over above her and splashing ice cold water everywhere.

"Ronalda, are you alright?" Maria asked her when she approached her 2nd born daughter who was now lying right on the ground soaking wet and a cart nearly on top of her.

A nurse came by at that minute and saw what had happened.

"What's going on?" the nurse asked her.

"Oh thank goodness, somebody's here, my 2nd born daughter, a bit freaked out over the passing of their own grandmother, ran right out into the hallway and had a bit of an accident here." Maria replied to her.

"Well let's get your daughter checked out then." the nurse said to her while getting the cart outta Ronnie Anne's way and checking to see if she was still responsive.

She was, even though she was quite sore, but when she was on her feet, they headed right down to an examining room where she was checked out, but nothing was broken, just a few scrapes and bruises which the nurse practitioner treated. When that was finished, Maria and Ronnie Anne went and caught up with Bobby, Carlos and Hector who was seeing to making the funeral arrangements for Rosa's memories.

"What just happened to Ronalda, Maria?" Carlos asked her upon seeing his 2nd born niece covered in bandages.

Maria went on to explain to him what had happened just as they headed right outside to catch their taxi cab back home to their apartment.

On the ride home, they had a good mourn over the loss and departure of Rosa and the taxi cab driver who was a young woman this time, began feeling terribly sorry for the entire family's depression and sorrow. When they got back home, Maria opened up cans of vegetable beef soup for their dinner meal, but nobody was in the mood to eat much of anything, especially not when Ronnie Anne's depressed like this for the rest of her entire life.

"It's just not fair, 1st my Bisabuela Maya left me, then my goldfish, Sparkles and now Abuela, why did she need to pass away?" Ronnie Anne cried a bit at the dinner table.

"We still have our other relatives, Ronnie Anne." Bobby said to her.

Ronnie Anne stared at her older brother.

"We know that, Bobby." Ronnie Anne snapped at him.

"Ronalda, no more snapping at your brother." Maria said to her.

"Sorry 'bout that, Mom." Ronnie Anne muttered to herself while taking another bite of her vegetable beef soup.

"And just like your Great Grandma Maya, my mother's now in the skies of heaven watching down on all of us, but I agree with you, Ronalda, why did she need to go so soon?" Carlos asked her while breaking down in tear drops.

"Can I be excused?" Ronnie Anne asked them.

Maria nodded her head just as her mouth was full so Ronnie Anne got right up from the dining room table and headed right off to her bedroom where she sat for a bit on her bed and looked right through old photographs of her, Bobby, Rico and Rosa as well. The 1st photograph she opened up to in the book was taken not too long ago right before Rico was born. Rosa had come to stay with them and she saw a photograph of Carlos making a blueberry pie with her. It had been good 8 years ever since that ordeal happened, but she recalled some other times about thinking Rosa had good luck with her cooking skills and being upset by the fact that she was spending more time with Bobby than she was with her. She turned over to another photograph where she, Bobby, Rico and Rosa were playing together as always in the backyard the following day, then she flipped back a few pages to photographs taken of her when she, Bobby and Rico were visiting Rosa over the weekend. There was 1 taken of her at age 4 and a half sitting on Rosa's lap and looking at 1 of her fairy tale books

She looked at more photographs while looking at all of the photographs taken of her wearing the sweaters Rosa would knit for her every single year and she pulled out the last couple of years of Christmas cards Rosa had sent her, but tragically, no Christmas card came last year 'cause of the terrible health state she was in, but just as she looked right at Rosa's handwriting on the cards, she couldn't stop thinking about how she didn't even get to tell her goodbye 'cause she was already deceased when they arrived at the hospital. By this point, Ronnie Anne lost it again, silently breaking down in tear drops just as she snuggled up with herself and put her face right into her pillow while crying herself to sleep and never even getting undressed for bed or remembering to take her fruit flavored vitamins which was something she hadn't forgotten ever or at least just as far as she could remember.

The very next day, while Bobby went to work and Maria went to the bowling alley, Ronnie Anne and Carlos stayed at home not sure what to do around here. They spent their entire day speaking about Rosa and looking at old photographs while mourning, not able to contain themselves, that afternoon, Hector called while letting Carlos know when the funeral service would be and asking if he wanted an open or closed casket service at the wake.

"Dad, I don't know if I want it open or not." Carlos replied to Hector on the wireless telephone just as Ronnie Anne walked right into the upstairs washroom to get herself some ice cold water.

"I sure hope I don't need to see Abuela's deceased body again, that was very disturbing." Ronnie Anne said to herself while filling up a cup of ice cold water from the washroom faucet.

"Closed casket, please." Carlos said to Hector on the wireless telephone while hearing Ronnie Anne's comment.

The following day, which was a Tuesday, Ronnie Anne did go back to school, even though she would've preferred to stay at home, she was gonna need to miss half a day on Friday to go to the funeral service at the funeral home followed by the funeral service the next day, meaning they'd be staying with Hector overnight so Maria and Carlos wanted her to go to school on that day.

"How's your grandmother, Ronnie Anne?" Sid asked her while seeing her best friend for life step right up on the school bus.

She took a seat right next to her and once again, trying to hold back the tear drops. She leaned right in to Sid's left ear.

"She passed away right before we even made it to visit her in the hospital." Ronnie Anne whispered to Sid.

"Oh wow, Ronnie Anne, I'm terribly sorry to hear that." Sid said to her.

"Thanks a bunch, Sid." Ronnie Anne replied back to her.

By the time they got to school, the rest of the entire gang knew about Rosa's passing and were all feeling terribly sorry for Ronnie Anne and the bulk of the entire day was uneventful, even though Maria had sent in a note with Ronnie Anne to give to Agnes Johnson about having to leave early on Friday afternoon and asking if she could take her spelling test in the morning time ever since he usually gave them right after lunch and recess, she agreed to let Ronnie Anne take the test the following Monday morning and seeing that he knew what she must be going through, giving her the weekend to study.

"You don't need to do that, Ms. Johnson." Ronnie Anne said to their 6th grade teacher.

"I know, but you need to heal, Ronnie Anne, I lost my grandfather last year, so I know how it really feels, you just hang in there, they'll get better in the nick of time." Agnes Johnson replied to her just as the 6th grade students were coming back from gym class which Ronnie Anne skipped on account of she was still feeling sore in a few places from her accident in the Hospital from a couple of days ago.

The rest of the day and Friday afternoon were uneventful, just as Ronnie Anne, more or less went through the motions of going to school, preparing herself for the upcoming days ahead. During lunch time, Maria and Carlos both had their cars back, but Carlos didn't feel much like driving so Maria came to pick up Ronnie Anne, signing her out for the afternoon and right before they knew it, they were heading right up to the funeral home an hour away from them. Ronnie Anne had problems falling asleep the night before, so she caught herself a relaxing nap in the car on the way up there. Right after they arrived, they went right into the funeral home which was decorated in beautiful pink and white flower plants and the purple casket was closed with a photograph of Rosa sitting right on top was near the alter. While Ronnie Anne didn't really wish to see a photograph of Rosa, especially since this was 1 of the more recent pictures when she began getting really ill, all she could think about was…

"At least I don't need to look at her deceased body again." Ronnie Anne thought to herself while kneeling down at the alter to say some praises.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with lines of Great Lakes City residents who knew Rosa coming right up through the line and giving Ronnie Anne and the rest of the family members their condolences and showing their respects and saying how sorry they were for their loss and departure. Ronnie Anne, wearing a black outfit which she changed into upon arriving at the funeral home, politely hugged them back and told them thanks a bunch, even though deep down, she'd much prefer to have been left alone.

If that wasn't enough, it was even harder to face Hector's place where they were staying that evening then they had the funeral service the next day.

"Did you sleep okay, Ronalda?" Maria asked her.

Ronnie Anne nodded her head.

"Well we'd better get a move on, they want us at the church building at 9 AM." Carlos said to them while standing up from the breakfast table and heading upstairs to prepare themselves

They all finished their breakfast meals and went to get themselves prepared. Ronnie Anne put back on the black outfit she wore the day before, if for no other reason, she didn't bring anything to wear. Right before they knew it, they were at the church and the funeral service shortly began afterwards. They performed several of Rosa's most favorite hymns and Maria and Carlos spoke about their late mother. Ronnie Anne also learned that the church where Rosa's funeral service was at was also the same church where Rosa and Hector got married in the past years. Then they went to the Great Lakes City Cemetery where Rosa was put down to rest in heavenly peace.

"Goodbye, Abuela, I'll never forget about you." Ronnie Anne said to herself while looking right up towards the skies of heaven where she believes she saw Rosa's face in the clouds. Right after the funeral service, they went to 1 of Rosa's most favorite restaurants for their lunch meals followed by a trip to the convenient store where Ronnie Anne picked up the latest _Justice Pals_ comic magazine with that week's allowance and Carlos picked up a copy of the newspaper to have a copy of his and Maria's mother's obituary. Afterwards, they packed up the car and headed for home where Ronnie Anne read her new comic magazine on the way there.

Reading the comic magazine cheered her up a bit and Bobby commented how it was the 1st time he had seen his younger sister smiling in a few days. It was living proof that it would take a great deal of time to fully come to terms with Rosa's passing, she was on the road to recovery, but right before she could really begin the healing process, there was 1 final thing she went home and did. Later that Saturday afternoon, she got together a little box and placed inside the 1st outfit she knitted for her as a baby girl, which was not the purple and pink 1 she was wearing at the park that autumn. Along with those photos of their past years, she also put in there, the Christmas cards she sent her over the years, and on the very top of the stack, she cut out the obituary from the newspaper and laid it right on top. When everything was inside, she closed the box and placed it on the shelf in her closet.

"Goodbye, Abuela, you'll always in our hearts and minds." Ronnie Anne said to herself while waving to the box and closing her closet door.

She went right downstairs to the living room where she found Bobby watching The Adventures of the Justice Pals on television. She took a seat right next to him on the sofa. When a television commercial came on, Bobby looked right over to see his younger sister sitting right next to him and smiling at him as well.

"Are You feeling any better, little sis?" Bobby asked her.

"Yeah, Bobby, Mom and Tio Carlos are absolutely right, Abuela's up in the skies of heaven watching over us just like Bisabuela Maya is." Ronnie Anne said to him.

"I'm so relieved you're feeling so much better right now." Bobby said to her.

"So am I, I'll always miss her more than anything, but I'll never forget her and besides the mom, uncle, aunt, abuelo, cousins and 2 brothers I got now, she was the closest thing we had for quite a while." Ronnie Anne said to him.

"But Mom, Tia Frida, Tio Carlos, Abuelo, our cousins and Rico are still with all of us and they really love us more than anything." Bobby said to her just as Maria (with Rico in her arms) and Carlos walked right into the room.

"We sure do." Maria said to them while she (with Rico in her arms) and Carlos were sitting right on the sofa with them.

And from that day forth, while there were minutes where Bobby and Ronnie Anne missed Rosa more than anything, in time, Ronnie Anne got over the loss and departure, looking back on the memories of Rosa, with smiling faces.


End file.
